Judge's $1,500 birthday gift raises questions

A surprise birthday party for Warren District Judge John Chmura, staged by his staff and financed in part by attorneys who appear in his courtroom, yielded a $1,500 cash present for the judge, which he used to finance an upcoming trip to Las Vegas.

The generous gift raises ethical questions and might amount to a violation of Michigan’s Judicial Code of Conduct.

The Nov. 29 event, held at a banquet hall a month before Chmura’s actual 50th birthday, began with the sale of $30 tickets by the court staff. The tickets looked similar to typical campaign fundraising tickets and indicated that the price would pay for food, a disc jockey and karaoke, and a “present” for the judge.

The ethics rules for judges, the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct, place restrictions on gifts that a member of the judiciary can accept.

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“If funds are solicited by a judge’s staff without his knowledge, the judge cannot be blamed for their actions. However, once the judge learns about the event … the judge now had knowledge that the price of the tickets sold exceeded the reasonable cost of the party,” said Larry Dubin, a law professor at University of Detroit Mercy who specializes in ethics matters.

“Also, the gift involved cannot reasonably be considered ‘nominal,’ pursuant to the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct. It might be wise for the judge, having acquired this knowledge, to forego the receipt of the gift. The Code of Judicial Conduct in other sections attempts to avoid having the judge take action that creates an appearance of impropriety. A party of this nature raises concern about that standard.”

Chmura could not be reached for comment. His staff said no pressure was placed on attorneys to purchase tickets.

The judge’s secretary, Cheryl Zipay, said nearly two-thirds of those in attendance were family or friends, not attorneys. But those familiar with the party suggested that some attorneys bought several tickets each and gave many away.

Zipay, who was stunned to learn that the event may raise ethical issues, said the judge’s Vegas trip has been booked, with a flight set on Feb. 27. “That’s what he wanted and I was hoping to have enough” proceeds from the party to pay for it.

The party was held at the American Polish Century Club in Sterling Heights, where Chmura is a well-recognized local official due to his long history of ties to the Polish-American community and his charity work.

Attorneys who attended the party or have knowledge about the event are reluctant to talk publicly about the situation.

The “canons” within the code of conduct establish a meticulous set of rules designed to establish neutrality in the courtroom and prevent conflicts of interest by judges. Those who site on the bench are also banned from raising campaign funds except within a 9-month window in the year when they face re-election.

Court Administrator Rob Curtis said he sold a few tickets to Chmura’s party but he did not realize the gift would be so large. His participation occurred during a time in November when he was a finalist to fill a 37th District Court judicial vacancy and he was awaiting a phone call from Gov. Rick Snyder about the gubernatorial selection. That appointment went to Dean Ausilio.

In the 1980s, numerous elected officials in Macomb County threw themselves a “birthday party” that resembled election campaign fundraising events. Tickets were sold and the parties were well-attended, typically at banquet halls. The politicians were not required to report who bought tickets or how much money they pocketed from the proceeds.

The practice gradually came to a halt after news stories in The Macomb Daily exposed the pressure put on people to purchase tickets and the ability of those who purchased stacks of tickets to buy influence.

Chmura’s entry into Macomb County politics began in the early 1990s and he would soon demonstrate a willingness to shun judicial protocol.

In 1995, a year after suffering a bitter loss in a state House election by less than a dozen votes, then-governor John Engler appointed Chmura, an attorney, to a vacancy on the bench of the 37th District Court, which handles cases from Warren and Center Line.

In the 1996 elections, with Chmura taking advantage of his quasi-incumbent status to pursue a 6-year term, he launched a nasty campaign against his opponent, court administrator Jim Conrad, that featured personal attacks, including attempts to link Conrad with former Detroit mayor Coleman Young.

Chmura won that election but Conrad followed up with a complaint to the Judicial Tenure Commission, the watchdog agency charged with overseeing the state’s judges, claiming that Chmura violated judicial ethics that forbid personal attacks on an election opponent.

Chmura took the administrative matter all the way to the state Supreme Court, where he won a ruling that said First Amendment free speech protections trump Michigan’s judicial canons.